December 21, 2010

A New Yorker editor pleads for a little quiet

Harold Ross, founding editor of The New Yorker, testified at a hearing before the New York State Public Service Commission on this day (December 21) in 1945. Ross objected to the recent debut of music and commercials over the public address system at Grand Central Terminal, saying, "If they get away with this, nobody will be able to read on any means of conveyance in the United States." A lawyer for the New York Central Railroad, which ran the train station, derided Ross's magazine as "an adult comic book." Several weeks later, the broadcasts stopped.